ABSTRACT
Ten years have passed since China and Russia first signed the Treaty on GoodNeighborliness, Friendship, and Cooperation, and time has largely softened, if not altogether silenced, many of the fears surrounding the treaty’s birth. The once popular notion that China and Russia might form “an incipient alliance,” for instance, no longer remains a mainstream sentiment. Instead, most contemporary scholars of Sino-Russian relations tend to see the relationship between China and Russia as one premised upon convenience rather than ideological alignment-one that is more likely to falter with increasing amounts of pressure than one that is certain to grow stronger with time. This conclusion derives primarily from scholars’ historical understanding of the two nations as well as their analytical evaluation of the evolution of the Sino-Russian friendship since 2001.
